Flame
by Butterfly Hippie
Summary: Flame McLain was always in the shadow of her older sister, Ember, even after her sister's death. Now she's taking matters into her own hands, and making sure people remember HER name.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

For as long as I can remember, Ember's been my savior, my protector.

It wasn't quite that our parents didn't care about us, they did. Well, Dad did, anyway. Mom was too busy with her alcohol addiction and the steady stream of boyfriends that came after. But Dad was just...Dad. He didn't really understand us, although he tried. For almost all my life, I felt distant from him, cut off. The only person in my life I could count on was my big sister, Ember.

Ember cared about me deeply. At nights, when Mom would come home drunk, and Dad would plead with her for the thousandth time to stop that hateful addiction, Ember would pat her bed in the room we shared, and say "Come on, Flame. They're not gonna stop for awhile." And I'd climb up and we'd huddle together long into the night. Most nights I fell asleep to Mom and Dad's fighting, and the reassuring rhythm of Ember rubbing my back.

But at the same time, as much as I loved my sister, there were times I wished that she wasn't quite so popular. Everybody loved Ember, and everybody seemed to hate me. Even Mom, when she was sober, always fawned over Ember, and it was that way right up until Ember's death. Maybe it was because Ember was born first, I don't know. All I know that even after her death, I was always living in my sister's shadow.

Ember was outgoing and loud; I was shy and introverted. Everybody just _loved_ Ember's music, and she never passed up an opportunity to perform. No one knew that I was a budding musician myself. I kept my songs secret, all collected in a looseleaf binder kept under my mattress, hidden as craftily and secretly as some people hide their diaries.

I always felt like I was invisible next to Ember. Ember was outrageous. She added bright turquoise streaks to her naturally jet-black hair. Everybody loved them and wanted them for their own. Ember was popular in school, and her influence could make or break your high school career. Yet when I highlighted my hair with equally bright streaks of hot pink, everybody called me "Lame McLain" and "copycat". All I ever wanted to do was be like Ember.

Ember died when she was barely seventeen. I remember it all too clearly. Mom was on one of her drinking sprees, and she was screaming things at Ember that I don't really care to repeat. She advanced on Ember and Ember just kept backing away. It was the first, and last, time I ever saw Ember terrified.

"You're not fit to live in this household!" Mom screamed, her eyes all bloodshot and her speech all slurred. "You're a burden and a piece of scum! You're an arrogant little brat, you and that sister of yours! I hate you." I remember peeking around our bedroom doorway, too scared to even move. All of a sudden, I saw that Mom had a knife, just an ordinary knife from the kitchen. And she was aiming it right at Ember's chest.

"Mommy, don't!" I cried. I remember that I was thinking about how babyish that sounded, like a little girl. _I'm a little girl anymore_, I remember thinking, _I am a strong willed, independent teenager. I'm thirteen years old, for god's sake!_ Such strange thoughts were running through my mind at that time.

I moved slowly and clumsily, as if I was underwater. I moved towards my mother and sister with no clear plan in my head, just to stand in the way of Ember and my mother. But just as I reached them, I tripped, and lay sprawled on my stomach beside them.

"Get out of the way, you little brat!" Mom snarled. As she advanced upon me, the hand with the knife grazed my cheek and I cried out in pain.

"Kids, kids, I'm so sick of you kids!" Mom fumed, turning back to Ember. "I'm gonna get rid of you kids once and for all!" The hot, rancid smell of beer was making my stomach churn. Mom's words drifted off into a stream of indistinguishable muttering and finally into silence as she inched closer and closer to my sister. Ember looked at me with wide. scared eyes. For the first time, I saw past the "cool" Ember, the one who was always the big one. For the first time, I saw that my big sister was just a terrified child inside. Just like me.

"Flame...help me!" she whispered, her green eyes wide with terror. I felt so helpless, scared and powerless to help the one who had always helped me before. It was the last thing I ever heard her say, for at that moment Mom struck. The blade of the knife flashed, and the next thing I knew, it was all over. Ember lay on the floor, the blade of the knife sticking theatrically out of her chest and blood spewing out of the wound. For one paralyzing moment, I thought Mom was going to do the same thing to me, but at the last minute, she turned away and stumbled out the front door, muttering something about needing more beer. She never returned. She got into a drunk driving accident, and died. She got what she deserved.

Poor Dad. He lost his wife and favorite daughter in one day. He found me an hour later, when he got home from work. He found me sobbing hysterically next to Ember's body, covered in Ember's blood, with a gash of my own on my cheek. I don't really remember what happened after that. It's just all a big blur. The Social Services people almost took me away from Dad after that. They thought he was unfit to be a parent because he left us alone when he knew that Mom was going to get drunk. But somehow he convinced them to let me stay. But after that fateful day, things were never quite the same. Dad was always somewhat removed from us, although he was more connected to Ember than he was to me. Everybody was. But now I was lucky if he spoke two words to me throughout the day. I guess he was dealing with the pain in his own way, and I in mine. My way was to write songs.

I wrote a song about Ember's death after her funeral. Her funeral was no different than her life was. Everybody focused on Ember, and nobody focused on me, and how I was feeling. Nobody, even all the aunts and uncles and cousins who came for the funeral, nobody knew who I was. I was just "that little girl crying her eyes out in the corner". As usual, I was almost a nonentity.

"You will remember my name." I muttered to myself furiously as everybody gathered around Ember's casket. "You will remember me someday." When I got home, I locked my bedroom door, flopped on my bed, took out my songs binder, and started to write.

_Yeah! Ohh-ooohhh!  
It was, it was September,  
Wind blows, the dead leaves fall,  
To you, I did surrender,  
Two weeks, you didn't call..._

_Your life goes on without me,  
My life, a losing game,  
But you should, you should not doubt me,  
You will remember my name..._

_Oh, Ember, you will remember!  
Ember, one thing remains!  
Oh, Ember, so warm and tender!  
You will remember my name!_

_Your heart, your heart abandoned,  
You're wrong, now bear the shame,  
Like dead trees in cold December,  
Nothing, but ashes remain..._

_Oh, Ember, you will remember!  
Ember, one thing remains!  
Ember, so warm and tender!  
You will remember my name!_

_Oh-woo-oh-woo, Ember!  
You will remember!  
Ember, one thing remains!  
Ember, so warm and tender!  
You will remember my name!  
Yeah! You will remember my name!_

As I finished writing the song, I got up to go to the bathroom, leaving my songs binder on my bed. When I returned, I almost fainted, and I'm not the Miss Priss kind of girl who faints at every little thing. Ember was sitting crosslegged on my bed, reading my songs. When she heard the door close behind me, she turned her head and gave me a big grin.

"Hey, sis." she said calmly.

And that was where it all began.

A/N: Yeesh. I think I'm getting worse at this, not better. This chapter took me months to write and I only just now decided to end it here. I considered making it a one-shot, but decided against it. I've got too many ideas for just one chapter. Soo...a bit of a spin on my usual theme, right? How do you like it? And please, if you hate it, please tell me. My writing just doesn't seem to be what it used to be a couple months ago. So I'm finally gonna shut up now and let you review. Please review!


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

"I must be dreaming." I muttered to myself. "I _must_. This _can't_ be possible." But it was. My sister, who had been dead for a month and a half, was sitting on my bed. Holding my songs binder. And talking to me.

"Nice song, by the way." Ember continued, apparently unaware of the havoc she was causing on my brain. I opened and closed my mouth several times, but my voice seemed to have taken a vacation at the moment.

"Hey, are you okay?" she asked worriedly, finally noticing that I was on the verge of passing out. She leaped gracefully off my bed, and was at my side in a second, ready to catch my swaying body. When she was this close to me, I realized I was wrong. This wasn't my sister. At least, it didn't _look_ like her. Ember's jet-black hair with turquoise streaks had been replaced by a fiery turquoise ponytail. It looked like a bottle of turquoise hair dye had burst into flames on her head. And I loved it.

"How...?" I was relieved to find that my voice had returned, even if it didn't seem to be functioning all too well.

"...am I here?" Ember finished for me. "Not sure. But I have a theory."

"Go...on." I gasped out weakly.

"Don't freak out, okay?" she commanded in that big-sister tone of voice that I had missed so much. I merely nodded. Ember took a deep breath.

"I think...I'm a ghost." I suddenly realized that Ember's body was translucent, almost completely transparent. I hadn't noticed it before because Ember always had naturally pale skin.

"What...?" I still wasn't able to form a complete sentence. But Ember got my meaning. She always did.

"Well, I'm not _sure_, sure, yet. But, I mean, come on. What else would I be? I _can't _be alive, because if I was alive, I wouldn't have this totally cool hairstyle!" I had to laugh at that one.

"But...if you were a ghost," I started slowly. "Wouldn't you be, like...I don't know, going _through_ stuff? You seem pretty solid to me." Ember shrugged.

"I don't know. Sometimes it seems like I can go through things, and sometimes I can't. Go figure." Just then there was a loud knock.

"Flame! Dinner!" Dad shouted through the door.

"There go his daily two words to me." I muttered, forgetting, for the moment, that Ember was next to me. And when I looked her way again, she was gone.

I hastily shoved my dinner down my throat and returned to my room as soon as I could. Ember wasn't there. By bedtime, I had almost convinced myself that I had dozed off and my ghost sister was just a dream. That's why she startled me so much when she rapped loudly on my window just after I had gotten into my pajamas. I quickly pushed the window open and realized she was _floating_.

"OK, you are seriously sending your sister's mental state into turmoil." I told her after she had gotten inside. Ember rolled her eyes.

"_Yours_? What about _mine_?!"

"And yours." I amended. For a few minutes I silently watched as my sister soared through my bedroom, floating in mid air. Suddenly, she seemed to get tired and drifted onto the bed next to me.

"I've missed you, Flame." she said softly, tears forming in her eyes. Could ghosts cry? I didn't know.

"I've missed you, too, Ember." I replied, brushing moisture from my own eyes. And it was true. I had missed my sister more than words could express.

"So, find out anything new?" I hastily changed the subject before the two of us got all mushy.

"Loads. Seems like the place I woke up in is sort of a realm of ghosts. It's called the Ghost Zone, and it's full of people-excuse me, _ghosts_, who don't like me. I'm already being hunted by a guy named Skulker."

"Hunted?" I burst out laughing. "I think you've landed in the realm of _insanity_."

"You're telling me." Ember sighed, pushing a lock of her new fiery blue-green hair out of her face. "I don't understand why they don't _like_ me!" She sounded so frustrated and totally clueless. I resisted the urge to shake my sister by the shoulders.

"Ember." I said testily. "Not _everybody's_ gonna like you. You can't be as popular in death as you were in life."

"I wish I could be." she admitted. "Here in the ghost world...zone...whatever it's called-they don't even know who I am. They don't even remember my name."

"Now you know how I feel." I started to say, but bit the words back. Ember wouldn't understand. She obviously believed that everybody in the world received the same lavish attention that she did-when she was alive, that is. These thoughts were interrupted by my sister suddenly disappearing.

"Ember?" I asked cautiously. I waved my hand a little in the space where my sister had been a minute before, and quickly I drew back. The space felt icy cold. As I did that, she reappeared.

"That seems to happen every once and awhile." Ember giggled nervously, trying to seem like she was totally used to this ghost thing, but I knew better. I knew my sister like a book, and the truth was, she was just as confused and terrified about this whole thing as I was.

After that day, Ember came to my window every night, just as I was getting ready for bed. I'd let her in and we'd talk for hours. She always stayed until I fell asleep, and every morning when I woke up, she was gone.

As the months passed, Ember gained more and more control of her powers. She learned how to go intangible when she wanted, and how to shoot destructive blasts of light (I later found out they were called ectoblasts) from her palms. We worked as a team, my sister and I. I was the coach, and she was the student. We learned together. And Ember returned to her love of music. One night she showed me a beat-up old guitar that she'd found in someone's Dumpster.

"Just wait." she said. "With a little paint, and a little decoration, this guitar's gonna be my baby."

Then came the day I turned on the TV, being lonely, and having nothing better to do. Dad was fast asleep in his favorite armchair, snoring at top volume. I had nothing to read and I didn't feel like practicing my guitar playing-or my singing. So I grabbed the remote out of Dad's lap and switched the channel from a boring football game to my favorite channel, MTV. Someone was performing on stage, and I looked closer, I realized who it was.

"_Ember, you will remember!_" she sang. "_You will remember my name!"_ Dad awoke with a startled grunt, but I hardly noticed. I was too busy staring at the girl on stage. It was my sister, with her newly refurbished guitar. And she was singing my song.

"I'm gonna kill her." I breathed, only vaguely realizing the irony of that statement. "She's gonna pay for doing this to me."

A/N: Well, I'm surprised, people actually like this story! Please keep reviewing!! Next chapter will be up...don't know when. 9th grade is stressful. So just please keep reviewing!

OMG!! I am SO sorry!!!!! I've had this chapter finished for ages and never posted it!!!!!!!! Wow my head really seems to be in the clouds lately...


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

I was waiting for Ember that night when she clambered through my window.

"Hey Flame!" she bubbled excitedly. "Did you see me on MTV? I was awesome, wasn't I? I can't believe it!" Then she noticed me with my arms crossed and my foot tapping, and her face fell.

"Uh oh." she said, backing away slowly. She knew that look on my face. It was my furious look, the same look I had give Billy MacArthur in the second grade when he tried to steal my cupcake. And when I gave someone my furious look, that someone usually got hurt. Billy ended up with a broken nose. Anger is the only thing I'm _not_ shy about. So you can see why Ember was a bit afraid of me. I advanced on her with every step, and she cowered against my bed, her hands shielding her face.

"What did I do?" she cried, as my eyes flashed with fury. By this time I was so close to her our noses were touching. My jaw dropped.

"_What did you do_?! Ember, I can't believe you're even _asking_ that! You know full well what you did!" Ember shook her head, twisting free from my grasp.

"No." she said, scowling at me. "I don't." I bit back a scream of frustration.

"That was _my_ song you performed!" Ember looked bewildered.

"Yeah, so?" This time it was me who backed away, because if I didn't, I would most certainly do something I'd regret later.

"Ember, that's _stealing_! You have an eleventh-grade education, surely they taught you about _plagiarism_!" Ember merely looked confused.

"Yeah, it was your song. I liked it, so I performed it." On some level, I was flattered that Ember liked my song that much that she would perform it herself. But on another level I was completely and totally outraged.

"Just...get out." I said, pointing a trembling finger towards the open window. "Get out now and don't ever speak to me again." I took shaky breaths, trying to keep the lump in my throat and the tears in my eyes from rising to the surface. I looked down at my bare feet for a moment, trying to regain my composure, and when I looked up again, she was gone, as quickly and silently as a breath of wind.

Then it hit me. _Oh, shit, what have I done?_ For the last three months, Ember had been my only source of comfort and happiness. Her nightly visits kept my sanity intact. And now she was gone. All because of me and my stupid song. I ran to the window, but all I saw were the tops of buildings and some litter blowing in the breeze. I flopped onto my bed, hugged my stuffed bear to my chest, and cried myself to sleep.

Some time later, I woke up to the sounds of faint guitar playing outside my window. I looked out the window, and there was my sister, sitting cross-legged on the small terrace we had, strumming her new cool guitar and singing a song. And as I listened closely, I could just make out the words.

_I was only trying to keep the walls from closing in  
I was only waiting 'round for something to begin  
I was only seventeen  
I told you that it didn't mean a thing _

Feels like a million years ago  
Small town where everybody knows  
Everything about everybody else  
Way back when there wasn't you and me  
I guess I was still naive  
And the moment was as far as I could see  
I was only trying to keep the walls from closing in  
I was only waiting 'round for something to begin  
I was only seventeen  
I told you that it didn't mean a thing  
Why can't you just love me  
Please don't push too hard  
The truth you think you're after  
Might just break your heart

Someone who I thought was my friend  
But sometimes people just pretend  
And I would never be the same again

I was only trying to keep the walls from closing in  
I was only waiting 'round for something to begin  
I was only seventeen  
I told you that it didn't mean a thing  
Why can't you just love me  
Please don't push too hard  
The truth you think you're after  
Might just break your heart

I'm sure there are things you would rather keep inside  
I won't ask you about all the things you've tried  
Don't let yesterday get in the way  
Why can't we just start from where we are

I was only trying to keep the walls from closing in  
I was only waiting 'round for something to begin  
I was only seventeen  
I told you that it didn't mean a thing  
Why can't you just love me  
Please don't push too hard  
The truth you think you're after  
Might just break my heart 

That song hit me like a rock, and knocked all the wind out of me. That song was too raw, too personal to be about anyone else. It had to be from Ember's own experiences.

"Emb..." I started, but my sister was already flying out the window, weaving through the tops of skyscrapers and apartment buildings until her flaming blue hair was just a speck in the distance. And just like that, she was gone.

A/N: Wow. I had this chapter nearly done for months and I completely spaced on it. I actually had ideas for this one, too. I'm so sorry for anyone who was waiting patiently for this chapter and didn't get it until now. The song is "I Was Only Seventeen" by the Beau Sisters, by the way. I don't own it, obviously.


End file.
